you might just hold your breath
by fakesroyalty
Summary: "Are you okay? You look really cold," Wally asked concernedly. Which is such a dumb question, because of course she's cold! It's like negative twenty out there! Even Wally looks cold, his nose has turned bright red (like… Rudolph, perhaps) and he's rubbing his hands up and down his very, uhm, nice thighs.


Just when you think a situation couldn't get any worse- it always does.

Artemis had a history test to study for, three chemistry worksheets, an English essay and fifty precalculus problems due for Monday, and that was kinda hard to squeeze in when you were, ya know, a secret vigilante on the weekends. So the fact that Batman assigned them an overnight mission on Friday did not have Artemis exactly stoked. She loved fighting crime, loved it more than anything else in the world except her mom, but she wished it just had a more convenient schedule, not one that caused her to get back sore and exhausted late Saturday afternoon to face the mountain of schoolwork in her apartment.

So she already wasn't thrilled about this mission, and that was _before_ it went to complete shit.

They were supposed to be finding a secret lair hidden in Siberia, which was pretty damn hardcore to be honest, so they got all bundled up in their thermal gear and were doing pretty well. That is, until Mother Nature decided to be a huge bitch and send a blizzard their way. Kaldur had ordered everyone to find shelter with whatever teammate they were nearest, and to check in with each other over the telepathic link every half hour until the storm cleared and Miss M could find them with the bioship.

Miss Martian and Robin had been near each other, so they got to chill out over on the parked bioship, which was totally unfair. Everyone else had to find caves to bunk in. To make matters _even worse_ , Artemis wasn't in the cave that had Kaldur, Zatanna and Superboy. No, no no. That would have been far too good of luck for this cursed weekend. Artemis was trapped in a cave with Kid Flash.

(Alright, so she's maybe being dramatic. Ever since Bialya, her and Wally's bickering had become more friendly than hurtful, and then that failed training exercise- they never talked about it, but sometimes Artemis caught Wally staring at her with a really intense look on his face and she felt warmth spread throughout her body. And she made sure to smile at him once in a while and he would grin back. And maybe she sometimes thinks about what he would do if she told him about her family, and it's not always a worst-case scenario anymore. Still just best frenemies though.)

Which is why Kid Flash is not the first person Artemis would have picked to shiver in a cramped cave with. Artemis is by no means a wimp about the cold- after all, she grew up in Gotham, and could face a bitter winter's day with just a sweatshirt and some jeans. But Siberia was like, next level frigid. And she could feel the freeze settling into her bones, working her way through her bloodstream, causing her muscles to seize in unmanageable shivers and her teeth to chatter unattractively. Kid Flash cannot see her this vulnerable. She clenched her jaw tightly to stop her teeth knocking together.

"Are you okay? You look really cold," Wally asked concernedly. Which is such a _dumb_ question, because _of course_ she's cold! It's like negative twenty out there! Even Wally looks cold, his nose has turned bright red (like… Rudolph, perhaps) and he's rubbing his hands up and down his very, uhm, nice thighs.

"No, it's perfectly pleasant over here. I could really go for a popsicle right now, maybe a dip in the harbor," Artemis responded sunnily. Wally's face contorted into a little scowl, and that eyebrow wrinkle should not be so adorable.

"Yeah, well I'm worried that you're about to _turn into_ a human popsicle. Artemis, I seriously think you might be getting hypothermic and we need to do something to stop that. I'm not letting you- Batman would kill me if you turned into an ice sculpture," Wally said, stumbling over the worlds at the last minute. A ruddy flush began to creep up his neck and meet his ears. Artemis heard the words he didn't say though- _I'm not letting you die again_. She swallowed hard but her throat was too dry.

"So what- we take off all our clothes and huddle together to exchange 'body heat'?" Artemis snarked back, trying to move the conversation away from where it had been about to stray. Wally flushed even more, but the tension was eased.

"I'm not actually an _idiot,_ Artemis," he scoffed. Artemis quirked one eyebrow, like _you could've fooled me_. Wally rolled his eyes in response. "Okay, I don't always think stuff through, fair enough. But this is _science_. And I am definitely not an idiot when it comes to science. Duh. Superspeed sound familiar?"

Okay, so, this is gonna sound really dumb, but Artemis often… forgets that Wally gave himself his powers. Well, _forgets_ isn't the right word, because it's kind of impossible to forget what with him zipping around and being obnoxious about it every five seconds, but like. When thinking about Kid Flash, it doesn't usually cross her mind that Wally managed to use some of his uncle's notes to successfully recreate a complicated science experiment at twelve years old, thus giving himself superspeed (and putting himself in a coma). So yeah, Kid Flash is definitely some kind of science prodigy, weird as it is to think of him being actually good at something other than eating the entire kitchen in less than three minutes.

"Well, O Great and Knowledgable One, what do you suggest we do?" Artemis responded, her sarcasm subdued by the fact that her stupid teeth were chattering. Wally shifted uncomfortably against the rough cave wall.

"Um, well, sharing body heat is actually a good idea, but taking off our clothes is definitely not. That would just make us way colder, and negate any positive effects that the body heat would have had. It would be a different ballgame if our clothes were wet, because then it would be better to take them off, but they are obviously not wet. So. They should stay on," he babbled. Which made a lot of sense, actually.

"Okay, then what _do_ you suggest?" Artemis asked, quite sincere. Wally once again twitched, and glanced about nervously.

"Well- okay, um, if you could take off your coat?" Wally said, his voice turning up at the end as if it were a question. Artemis raised her eyebrows, even as she felt her thighs begin to spasm with shivers. Wally shook his head as thought to clear it, and cleared his throat. "You should take off your coat. Here, look-"

And with that, he unzipped his own and slipped his arms from the armholes. He quickly crossed them across his chest, tucking his hands into his armpits. Even through his thermal sweatshirt and supersuit, Artemis could see his stomach muscles jumping from the cold air hitting them. Which definitely should not be as attractive as it was. Feeling a little warm all of a sudden- which was totally weird because it's fucking _freezing_ in this cave, has she mentioned?- she followed suit and unzipped her own coat and wrapping her arms around her core.

Wow, damn, if she thought it was cold before, she was wrong. Even after years of hanging around Icicle Jr., Artemis had never been frozen like this. She couldn't even control her body anymore. All of her muscles were shivering uncontrollably, shaking and jumping, and she couldn't stop them even if she wanted to. Just as she was about to glare at Wally and ask him what the next step in his genius plan was, she felt air rush around her and then was suddenly pressed against a large heating pad. At least that's what it felt like.

Then she realized that the heating pad was actually Wally's body, and instinctively flinched away.

"What the hell did you just do, Kid?" she hissed.

"Hey, hey," Wally murmured, his breath ruffling his hair, "Calm down, Arty. We're sharing body heat for survival."

She smacked his stomach, which would have been more impressive if she had room to pull her arm back more than five inches. It was Wally's turn to flinch away from her, and swore under his breath.

"Is this really what I get for helping?" he asked. "I just zipped the opposite sides of our coats together to make like, a blanket burrito, basically. This way, we can share body heat while still having the protection of our coats and clothes."

Okay. That was actually… not a terrible idea. Artemis was glad that he had at least used his speed to zip them together, because she definitely wouldn't have been able to control her fingers to do it. However, that didn't change the fact that her face was basically shoved in the junction between his neck and shoulder, and she didn't like it. Or rather, she didn't like how much she liked it. That makes sense.

"Well, thanks I guess," she said grudgingly. "Can we arrange this so it's actually comfortable?"

"Oh yeah, good idea," Wally chirped back. "Here- you go… how bout you… Ow! That was my ribcage, Artemis!"

"Oh, sorry," Artemis simpered. "My mistake."

Eventually, they managed to arrange themselves so that Wally was propped against the wall, and Artemis was sitting in-between his legs with her head resting back on his chest. Wally's hands hovered awkwardly around for a few moments, but he eventually just rested them on top of her stomach because there was really no room to put them anywhere else. It was a kinda, well, intimate position, but there wasn't any other way to make it work, and besides. It was pretty comfortable. And Artemis was warming up quickly.

"Why are you so hot?" she questioned. She heard Wally choke behind her, and realized how that sounded. " _Not_ what I meant, loser."

"I- I know," Wally said, voice thick. He cleared his throat again. "You know that when I got my powers, it increased my metabolism. Everything runs faster inside me so there's more chemical reactions and that creates more heat. Soo my average body temperature is higher than a normal human's."

"Well, that's… nice," Artemis responded hesitantly. Really, it was pretty damn cool. Like, half the time Artemis can't believe this is her life now: she's saving the world with people who managed to change their DNA when they were twelve, can control water, leap over buildings, _read minds for God's sake,_ and hack into CIA databases for fun. Sometimes she wonders how she fits into it all, how she managed to end up here, but dwelling not it too long never does any good.

"Yeah, nice for hypothermia," Wally snorted. " _Not_ so nice when trying to go to the hospital. Apparently a body temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit is 'extremely dangerous'."

Artemis _hmm_ 'd in the back of her throat, then settled more comfortably into Wally's chest. Hey- they were probably gonna be stuck here for a while, you can't blame a girl for wanting to get comfortable. In fact, she could probably just doze off like this…

"Hey! Hey, Artemis!" Wally called. Artemis groaned and elbowed him in the side. Seriously? Her ear is like, right there. "You can't fall asleep. It's like, Hypothermia 101. Not that I think you're at risk of dying or anything, at least not anymore, but you should keep up form just in case. Besides, we are on a mission."

"When has being on a mission ever kept you behaving professionally?" Artemis rolled her eyes.

"Um, excuse me, I always behave professionally! I am a professional!" Wally squawked indignantly. "And if you don't promise to try to keep yourself awake, I'm just gonna have to talk the whole time to keep you up."

"And that would be different from every other moment of the day how, exactly?" Artemis sighed. Wally huffed, but his face softened into a little smile.

" _Is everyone maintaining an appropriate body temperature?"_ Kaldur's voice filtered through her head, totally crushing the moment. Wait, how did that become a moment?

" _Yeah, Kaldur, we're good here,_ " Artemis thought back, gratefully sinking even further into Wally's chest. Honestly, he was so warm, it was wonderful. And their coat cocoon was quickly heating up, so Artemis' teeth weren't even trying to chatter anymore.

" _Miss M and I have heating, reclining chairs and food, so we're doing okay_ ," Robin managed to sound irritatingly smug even in her own head.

" _Shut up Rob. Nobody cares that you happened to be closest to Meg,_ " Wally responded, prompting Artemis to grin. And then she heard a huge rumble come out of Wally's stomach.

"I hate him so much," Wally groaned. "It's like he managed to remind my body how hungry I am."

Artemis stiffened with worry. She had seen him on low energy before, and she did not want to repeat the experience ever, particularly not on a mission.

"Do you have any food with you? I know we brought stuff on the bioship, but all I have is some powerbars and water that I keep in my quiver," Artemis asked. She felt Wally's arms tighten around her momentarily, like he was giving a little thanks-for-caring hug.

"Yeah, ever since Bialya I make extra-sure to keep my cupboards full. I have some high-calorie energy bars, I just need to-" he slid his arms back and then up through the little neck hole they had, which put some strain on Artemis' neck. Wally then quickly popped both the little containers open and pulled out the food before closing them and slipping one hand back into the cocoon with most of the bars. She heard some crinkling, which must mean he was opening a wrapper with just one hand, then chewing noises from right behind her head. Which was a little gross. He better not be spewing crumbs everywhere. It only took him a few seconds to gulp the whole thing down, then he moved his right hand back to where it was before on her stomach.

"Do you want one too? I have enough to spare, it's not like we'll be in here for days," he offered. A little touched, Artemis responded with an affirmative. "Alright here just- grab one. I'm gonna warn you, they weren't made to taste good."

Artemis grabbed a bar out of his hands and then opened it under the coats. She bent her head down so that her hands didn't have to be exposed to the cold air much, and tried to eat the bar. Which was more difficult than Wally made it look. It tasted like cardboard and nuts and grit, which was just not appetizing. She didn't feel like getting her own food out of her quiver though, so she sucked it up and ate the bar. If it had as many calories as Wally said she hopefully wouldn't need to eat again until the team picked them up in the bioship.

"Thanks for sharing Wally, I know how hard it is for you," she said.

"Hardy har har. You're welcome," Wally responded. "You can go to sleep for an hour if you want, I'll take first watch."

"You sure?" Artemis asked doubtfully. She didn't completely trust anyone to watch her back when she was so vulnerable, her dad made sure of that. And Kid Flash wasn't exactly known for being attentive and perceptive.

"Yeah. I got you," Wally reassured with a pat to her stomach. It was oddly comforting, and it hit Artemis how exhausted she was. Her eyelids felt heavy, every blink too much effort. And really, she did trust Kid Flash. She trusted him with her life.

And with that thought, and Wally's warmth against her back, she drifted off to sleep.

 _ **AN:**_ I am crossposting this from ao3, where I write under the name icouldbuildacastle. This was originally published January 26th, 2015.


End file.
